I had posted a thread asking questions about a 149, found one for sale, talked on the phone to the seller and stated it did not have hydraulic lift. I thought this was odd, but in the other thread I had, was told that IH had a shortage on parts, and was possible to get one with a manual lift.
So today, I went to go see it. Thanks to the other thread, DX3 (Dwayne) provided a snipit of a chart that indicates the model number in the tractor serial number. This particular tractor was listed by the seller as a 149, after getting the first glance of it, I knew it had the wrong engine, gaps were too large between the frame and flywheel shroud, up on further checking I found the kohler sticker indicating it was a 12 hp, K301:
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I then looked at the serial number, 20500461490437...the 0046 in it compares to the chart Dwayne provided indictating it is a 129. Looking at the chart in the tractor tech section of this site tells me it was built in Nov-Dec 1973. Here are some pics of the tractor itself:
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This one differs from my 149, it has the pto with the brake:
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The hood was the inner support broken off of it, the PO improvised by adding what appears to be the remains of jeep style hood latches to each side of the hood:
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The tractor started pretty easily (had been sitting since last fall, outside uncovered....the PO bought a new tractor and it took this ones spot in the shed, it got kick outside to fend for itself) and seems to run fairly well, throttles up and down, a little bit of black smoke when winding it up, I would say it needs serviced, a good carb cleaning, and checking the timing, it ought to run great. The deck is a 44" that is solid and turns freely (a few bumps and bruises though). It had 2 bolts missing from the left axle tube where it bolts to the frame, driving it up on my tilt trailer was a little scary, the left rear fender started lifting itself up as I got on the incline of the trailer! I had noticed the bolts missing earlier when I was looking the tractor over trying to figure out what I was getting, got it home and thought I would toss in a couple bolts...I could not get them in, believe it sheared the bolts off in the rear end case...I will have to look into that, it will be sitting until that is fixed, I am sure it has to be rough on the drive line with the rear end heaving up and down. I can hardly wait to get the broken bolts out of the rear end case, I am sure it will be really fun, probably many many outbursts of laughter too....LOL!
It is kind of a hodge podge of cub parts, hood and dash appear to be 149 (decals look original), the headlights and panel they sit in look to be from a 1xxx series tractor, and the rear end is at least from a 129. This will fall on the back burner for now, the 149 needs finished first. Speaking of the 149, I was needing to buy a new drive shaft and drive pin cup for it...I can hold off for now and rob the ones from this 129, they look to be brand new, I could not see any wear in the pin cup and the driveshaft is still raw steel, not a hint of surface rust on it!
The seller started out asking $400, was able to walk away with it for half that, I think I did okay!